On April 18, 2023, the European Parliament passed the new EU Carbon Border Regulation Mechanism (CBAM) rules with 487 votes in favor, 81 votes against, and 75 abstentions.

The CBAM mechanism, anchored by the EU carbon price, has put forward requirements for the carbon footprint, carbon value, and even the construction of border regulation mechanisms for exporting countries to the EU. The content of the EU CBAM mechanism is based on the carbon value determined by the EU's own carbon pricing system. Based on the actual carbon emissions of imported products, the EU's own carbon quota proportion is deducted, and the carbon emission obligations borne by the exporting country are deducted before determining the final carbon emission obligation to be paid. Under such a system, the CBAM mechanism puts forward high requirements for the construction of the carbon footprint and carbon pricing system of exporting countries; At the same time, the construction of its own CBAM mechanism is also of great significance for the export of carbon neutrality countries whose import carbon emissions account for a large proportion of total emissions.

The promotion of carbon tariff mechanisms and carbon pricing systems in European, American, and British countries is accelerating. With the rapid progress of the CBAM mechanism construction in the European Union, the pace of building carbon tariff and pricing systems in other countries is also gradually accelerating. The United States and Britain, based on their own situation, will address the impact of the CBAM mechanism on the future foreign trade market by strengthening import carbon emission control and strengthening domestic carbon pricing systems and EU linkage.

The urgency of building a carbon footprint and carbon trading system in China has increased. Among the industries that the EU CBAM intends to cover, China has only included the power industry in the preliminarily established national carbon market. The monitoring system for the power production and operation process is complete, with clear system boundaries and high quality and credibility of production and emission data. However, other industries such as aluminum, chemicals, and cement have relatively complex production processes, making carbon emission monitoring and accounting difficult. If included in the national carbon market, more requirements will be put forward for carbon footprint monitoring and accounting. Moreover, due to the initial establishment of a mechanism and a single industry, the carbon market in China has a relatively small scale and slightly weak vitality, and the carbon pricing system has not yet fully formed. Against the backdrop of the rapid advancement of CBAM construction internationally, the urgency of building China's carbon footprint and carbon trading pricing system is unprecedented.

The Guidelines for the Construction of Carbon Peak carbon neutrality Standard System was released, and the standards helped accelerate the construction. On April 21, the National Standards Commission, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, issued a notice on the Guidelines for the Construction of Carbon Peak carbon neutrality Standard System, in which the standard construction of carbon monitoring, accounting and verification became the first priority. At the same time, in the international aspect, it is proposed to conduct in-depth research on the relevant standardization policies and technical trade measures of the European Union, the United States and other regions and countries, and carry out a comparative analysis of domestic and international standards for carbon peaking carbon neutrality, focusing on promoting the transformation of international standards applicable to greenhouse gas management, carbon footprint, carbon capture, utilization and storage, clean energy, energy conservation and other fields into Chinese standards, so as to achieve the goal of "mining as much as possible" in a timely manner.